1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a method of configuring a computer system capable of being woken up on LAN, and in particular, to a method of directly configuring a computer system capable of being woken up on LAN, without needing to perform a start-up procedure.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past few years, the Microsoft Corporation has developed the mechanism of wake-up on LAN (WOL), so that the network system administrator can wake up a computer system of another host via a remote server. To achieve this function, the network interface card (NIC) equipped in the computer system must include the ability to be woken up by the remote server.
Generally, the power supply of a personal computer is divided into two types, core power and suspend power. When the computer is plugged in to an alternating current (AC) source, the suspend power immediately supplies power to the computer system, although the power switch of the computer has not been turned on yet. Additionally, when the computer is in a sleep mode, only the suspend power provides power to the computer system. After starting up, if the computer system detects some devices in the non-use mode, the system will set these devices to the suspend mode, so that the suspend power, instead of the core power, supplies power to the devices, in order to reduce power consumption.
When the computer is started up, the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) executes a Pre-Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (Pre-ACPI) routine and an ACPI routine, so as to adequately perform power management of the computer system. Then the operation system can turn off some peripheral devices not in use, or enable the system to fall into the sleep mode. When a user presses the keyboard or moves the mouse of the computer, the ACPI routine will automatically enable the computer to obtain the supply of the core power again.
Referring to FIG. 1, it is a sketch diagram of a conventional NIC. The conventional NIC 100 comprises a medium access control (MAC) unit 102, a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) control circuit 104, and an electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) 106. The MAC unit 102 is employed for controlling the access actions of packets of the NIC 100, and the PCI control circuit 104 is used for controlling the communication of the NIC 100 to a computer host via PCI bus 108. The EEPROM 106 is employed for storing an Ethernet identity (ID) of the NIC 100.
In the conventional NIC 100, the electrical power for both of the PCI control circuit 104 and the MAC unit 102 is supplied by the core power CP or the suspend power SP. When the computer is plugged in, the system is connected to the AC electrical power. However, before the power switch of the computer system has been turned on, the power of the PCI control circuit 104 and MAC unit 102 is provided by the suspend power SP. And after the computer system is turned on, the PCI control circuit 104 and the MAC unit 102 simultaneously receive electrical power supplied from the core power CP. When the computer is in the sleep mode, the system switches the power supply of the PCI control circuit 104 and MAC unit 102 from core power CP to suspend power SP, in order to reduce the power consumption, wherein, the change of power supply can be achieved by a switch apparatus 112.
In the conventional NIC 100, the MAC unit 102 should firstly load the Ethernet ID stored in the EEPROM 106 when the MAC unit 102 is set to a wakeup-on-LAN mode, which enables NIC 100 capable of being waken up on LAN. Before the computer has been turned on, the clock signal of the computer system has not been generated because the computer system, in which the south bridge 110 is equipped, has not been started up yet. At this time, if the MAC unit 102 tries to load an Ethernet ID from the EEPROM 106, an additional oscillator 114 is required by the prior art to provide the necessary clock signal for loading the Ethernet ID in the EEPROM 106. However, the oscillator 114 requires additional cost.
A remote system can send a magic packet or a pattern match packet through the network to the NIC 100 to wake up the local computer. If the NIC 100 has been set to the wakeup-on-LAN mode, the MAC unit 102 immediately sends a wake-up event signal to the south bridge 110 to wake up the computer system when receiving the magic packet or pattern match packet. The above magic packet was proposed by the AMD Corporation and the pattern match packet was proposed by the Microsoft Corporation. The latter is further characterized by its user programming capability.
In addition, before the south bridge 110 is set to a standby mode capable of receiving the wake-up event signal sent by the MAC unit 102, the BIOS should firstly perform the ACPI routine of the start-up procedure. That is, setting the south bridge 110 is achieved just after a user turns on the computer and the computer system begins to perform the start-up procedure. The setting process requires greater electric current than the suspend power can support, and therefore must be supplied by the core power CP. As a result, traditionally, before the computer is switched on, the south bridge 110 cannot respond to the wake-up event signal sent by the MAC unit 102 and the computer system cannot be woken up on the LAN. Therefore, if the computer system never performs the start-up routine, i.e. has never been booted up, it cannot be awaken on the LAN in the prior art.
Furthermore, if a computer, that has fulfilled the start-up routine and has been set to the wakeup-on-LAN mode, is abnormally turned off, such as a computer crash or power failure, then the BIOS will not be able to successfully set the NIC 100 to the wakeup-on-LAN mode. At the moment, although the suspend power is still active, the computer cannot be woken up by remote magic packets or pattern match packets. The only solution to enable the computer system including the wakeup-on-LAN function is to restart the computer and to reset the south bridge.
The power status of the PCI apparatus includes the D0 state, D1 state, D2 state, and D3 state. The following descriptions focus on the D0 and D3 states. When the computer system is started up and in normal action state, the NIC 100 is in the D0 state. When the computer system shuts down or enters in the sleep mode, the BIOS sets the NIC 100 sequentially to the D1 state, D2 state, and D3 state, so as to enable the MAC 102 to include the wakeup-on LAN function. At the moment, the Ethernet ID loaded into the MAC unit 102 is still kept in the NIC 100, and the NIC 100 can still be woken up on LAN.
In contrast, when the computer is abnormally turned off, the NIC remains in the D0 state because it is too late for the BIOS to set the related setting of the NIC 100 in the sleep mode. That is, the NIC 100 has been not set to the wakeup-on-LAN mode yet. However, abnormal shutdown or power failure causes the loss of the Ethernet ID that was loaded into the MAC unit 102, and the NIC 100 does not have the ability to receive the magic packet, so that the computer system does not have the wakeup-on-LAN function.